Where to take the 40-hour New Hampshire course
Only one of the national schools sells a New Hampshire pre-licensing course at all. Before you buy any course here, read the delivery rule in the next section and then ask the provider one direct question: how many of these 40 hours are taught live?
The CE Shop
- The only one of the two national schools selling a New Hampshire pre-licensing course, at the correct 40-hour count, so it is the single national option to evaluate
- Sold in tiered packages, so you can buy the course on its own if you would rather not pay for exam prep you may not use
- Also sells the New Hampshire Commission core course, which is the one CE course you cannot substitute your way out of at renewal
- Ask before you buy how the 40 hours are delivered — the state requires 32 of them live, and that is the question that decides whether a course counts
Colibri Real Estate
- Sells the New Hampshire Commission core course, the mandatory three hours every licensee owes at every renewal including an inactive one
- New Hampshire continuing education for the 12 elective hours you will owe once you are past your first renewal
- Exam prep sold separately, including a live option, useful if you have finished your 40 hours with a local school
- No New Hampshire pre-licensing course — its own state page still describes the requirement as 60 hours, which is not the figure in New Hampshire law
How to get your New Hampshire licence
Five steps, and the order is fixed by rule — the background check comes first and the application comes last.
Start the criminal records check
State law has you submit a criminal history record authorisation to the Division of State Police before you submit the licence application. It is not a step you can leave until the end, and processing time is not in your control.
Complete 40 hours, at least 32 of them live
Classroom attendance or a real-time internet class where the instructor can see and speak with you counts toward the 32. Up to eight hours may be non-real-time distance education, and only to make up an acceptable absence such as illness or a technical failure — not as a way to take the whole course at your own pace.
Pass both portions with PSI
Eighty national questions and forty state questions, 70 per cent on each. Both portions have to be passed within six months of your first attempt, and after eight failed attempts you go back and take an accredited pre-licensing course again.
Get your principal broker to sign
The prospective principal broker completes part of the application and attests that they will employ and supervise you. There is no route where you get licensed first and find a brokerage afterwards.
File — but only after you have passed
The rules tell candidates not to send the application or the fee until they have been notified they passed both portions. Then move quickly: state law requires you to become licensed within six months of the examination date or sit it again.
From RSA 331-A:10, RSA 331-A:10-a, RSA 331-A:11, RSA 331-A:22, RSA 310:8, and the New Hampshire Code of Administrative Rules Rea 301.01, 301.02, 301.03, 302.03, 303.05 and 403.01, together with the New Hampshire candidate bulletin published by PSI, verified August 2026. Exam fee deliberately omitted: Rea 301.02(f) sets a $155 salesperson examination fee while PSI's own bulletin charges $34 national, $32 state and $66 combined. We will not average two official figures, so check what PSI charges when you book. The criminal records check fee is set by the Division of State Police and is not published in the Commission's fee rule.
New Hampshire FAQs
Can I take the New Hampshire course entirely online?
Yes, but only if it is live. The rule requires "a minimum of 32 hours of classroom attendance or real-time internet live-class distance education," so a scheduled online class with live video and audio of every participant qualifies for the full 40. What does not qualify is a self-paced, pre-recorded course: non-real-time distance education is capped at eight hours and is allowed "only for acceptable absences" — family emergencies, illness, technical problems during a live class. Before you buy anything sold as an online New Hampshire course, ask the provider how many hours are delivered live.
How many hours does New Hampshire require?
Forty hours of approved study, and the law is specific that it must be completed before the date of your examination — not before your application. Both the statute and the Commission's rules use the same figure. If you see 60 hours quoted for New Hampshire, that number is not from New Hampshire law; one national school's own state page currently carries it.
Is my first renewal easier because I have just been licensed?
No — it is more restrictive. Every licensee owes 15 hours: a three-hour core course plus 12 elective hours. But a salesperson applying for their first renewal must use those 12 hours on post-licensing courses covering one each of four named topics: purchase and sales agreements, ethical behaviour, disclosure forms and agency. Everyone else picks their electives freely, and everyone else may count a second core course toward them — an option the rule specifically withholds from first-renewal applicants. Plan your CE around those four topics from the start.
Do I need errors and omissions insurance in New Hampshire?
No E&O requirement appears anywhere in RSA 331-A. New Hampshire does require surety bonds from principal and managing brokers, which is a different obligation on a different person, and is occasionally described as an insurance requirement by mistake. As a salesperson you are not required by the licensing statute to carry E&O — though a brokerage may well require it of you as a condition of employment.
Which law governs when my licence expires?
RSA 310:8 — licences issued by the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification are valid for two years from the date of issuance, running on your own anniversary rather than a common date. This matters because the section that used to govern lapsed real estate licences, RSA 331-A:18, was repealed in 2023 along with a long list of others when the Commission moved under OPLC. Any guide still citing 331-A:18 for New Hampshire renewal deadlines is citing law that no longer exists.